January 30, 2012

Valentine’s Sugar Cookies {blogoversary giveaway}

Some of you have been following my blog since its inception.  Some of you have been following for about a year.  Some of you are brand-stinkin’ new.  And I love you all tremendously, no matter how long you’ve been following.  While technically I started this blog in 2009, it really wasn’t until this time last year that I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do with it and where I wanted to take it.  So I thought that it’d be fun to have a little giveaway, to celebrate my one-year blogoversary.

I know I can’t thank all of you individually with cookies, but I can at least say thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, and sharing.  So thank you!  (And while I’m at it, I want to personally thank my husband who so graciously watches Matthew while I bake in the kitchen, willingly proofreads these posts, and happily eats the leftovers.)  I don’t even want to think about how many pounds of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs I’ve used this past year!  We’ll just say a lot and leave it at that.

For one lucky winner, I have a dozen Valentine Sugar cookies coming your way.  Yeah!  So much can be said in a cookie, and for me, it’s genuine gratitude.  I never thought that this little blog would be read by so many special people.

So, here’s how this giveaway works.  You can enter one of two ways: Continue reading →

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January 24, 2012

Mud Bars

I have a kitchen helper.  Maybe you do too.  My kitchen helper is my 18-month-old son Matthew.  For about the last 4 months now, he’s been interested in what I’m doing in the kitchen, but can’t actually see what I’m doing–which is apparently very frustrating for toddlers.  You know, to know that someone is doing something fun, but they aren’t a part of it.

So I decided to do what any logical, baker-crazy mom would do.  I pull up a chair and have him stand next to me, watching what I’m doing.  (I usually give him a measuring cup and a spoon, and he’s very content banging the counter, swirling the spoon in the cup, talking outloud.)

This past week, he’s helped me make a cake, sandwich cookies, and now bars.  He’s getting to be a pro, and pretty soon, he’ll pass me up.  His new thing is looking at what’s baking in the oven.  And he usually cleans the outside of the door, which is super helpful.  I mean, tongues aren’t just for talking. Continue reading →

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January 21, 2012

Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies

Valentine’s Day used to be my least favorite holiday.  I used to feel, way back when, that it was another excuse for the candy, card, and entertainment industry to suck money out of you, but deep down, it was most likely that I didn’t like Valentine’s Day because I didn’t have someone special to share it with.  I don’t mean family and friends, because that’s different.  (My wonderful dad would give my sisters and me little treats he’d made, from chocolate shaped like teddy bears to chocolate cups with ice cream inside, and my mom would always write cute, little love notes.  And for many years, my single friends and I would pick a fun restaurant in town and dress up and enjoy a nice time out.  We’d then go home, rent some non-sappy movie, and eat milkshakes.  So I wasn’t deprived in the love department.)

When you’re single, and you don’t want to be, you tend to dread this holiday and are reminded of what you don’t have.  But I don’t want this post to be about that.  I feel that I’ve grown up a bit, and while I still don’t feel the urge to buy a sappy love-letter, or make a romantic dinner on this particular day, (or feel entitled to a dozen roses by my hubby), I do really like the idea of Valentine’s Day being shared with the ones you love, no matter how you love them.

This is such a simple dessert to make for someone special in your life.  All you need is heart-shaped cookies, ganache, and sprinkles.  Simple, right?  Exactly.  That’s what I thought.  (I’m not being sarcastic, really. I promise it is easy.)  I make my chocolate sugar cookies from a recipe in the book Cookie Craft, (which is why I’m not posting it on the blog), but there are some good recipes on-line if you so choose.  Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, (mine were 1 1/2 inches, but you could use any size), bake and fully cool the cookies.  (Half are flipped in this photo to make creating the sandwich really easy.)

Ganache sounds like a really scary word, and until the other day when I made these cookies, it was.  But I found it pretty easy, even though the recipe I decided to try, from Martha Stewart Living, had confusing directions.  (I will do my best to de-mystify this in the instructions below.)  And normally, I alter recipes, but since I had never done this before, I thought it best to stick to the directions.  Anyway, that was a bit of a side note.  But this isn’t any kind of ganache–it’s whipped ganache, and it’s lighter, fluffier, and fudgier.  Once the ganache is made and whipped, scoop it into a pastry bag with a #12 tip. Continue reading →

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January 17, 2012

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

Pacific Northwesterners love snow.  I say this because we don’t get it very often and it usually doesn’t last.  Yesterday was our first snow of the season, and it was a very light dusting.  My one-and-a-half-year-old son was intrigued by the large white stuff floating down from the sky and kept pointing out the window.  He was also licking the window pane, but that’s another story.

With the weather so cold and the wind so biting, I decided to make a summer-y cake, to make myself feel warm and fuzzy inside.  Plus, I just bought another 6-inch cake pan, and really wanted to make a cake for two.  This cake makes way more than two, but it’s so cute and little, and well, I’m a sucker for those things.  And I couldn’t have just one piece either, so it makes me feel better knowing it’s a small cake.

You can buy these small cake pans at any cake decorating store; I’ve even seen them at Jo-Anns and Michaels.  They cost around $5 apiece.  For the middle of the cake, I used a raspberry filling.  It might sound like an odd combination, but trust me, they work together perfectly.  (I have to admit, though, I cheated on the filling–I bought it at our local cake decorating store. Gasp!!  Anyway, you could cheat like me, or make your own.  Raspberry preserve would also work just fine.)

Some tips with this cake: Continue reading →

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January 14, 2012

Baby Girl Shower

My good friend is having a baby girl soon.  Like in three weeks soon, and I couldn’t be happier for her.  I had the honor of helping host the shower, with my main job being to bring the desserts.  Her colors are pink and green and I spent a while deciding how I wanted to coordinate her colors into the desserts.  After much, much thought, I decided on vanilla cupcakes topped with a light pink vanilla buttercream frosting and a sprinkling of light green sugar pearls. (You can find the recipe for these cupcakes here.)

And for favors for the guests, I made sugar cookies.  (You can find the cookie and royal icing recipes in this lengthy post.)  Here they are all packaged up and ready for the guests to take home.  Lots of pink!  (I have two boys in my house, so pink is not a color I see very often.)

Here’s a close-up of the pink elephants and onesie cookies before I packaged them. Continue reading →

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